It’s become pretty undeniable that to sell goods and services online, merchants need a payment processor or gateway so they can accept different types of digital payment. Ecommerce is projected to reach $4.6 trillion by 2022, and with 140 different payment types1 currently on the market, the need for savvy and flexible processors and gateways will only increase.

And for merchants who are running a storefront on a digital platform instead of a brick and mortar store, being able to collect digital payments in an easy to use format is essential. By 2022, U.S. consumers will pay for online goods mainly with debit cards (30%), but credit cards (22%) and digital wallets (28%) aren’t far behind.2 Customers have a dearth of options, so the most seamless experience is often the winner.

In a study focusing on UK customers, 17% stated that having multiple payment options at the point of sale was a big decision factor in making a purchase.3 Thirty-six percent of those said they would shop again at a retailer that offered multiple payment options.

Softjourn has more than a decade of experience with cards and payments, so we're familiar with the technology, the trends, and the expectations. If you're a business in need of help enabling the acceptance of omnichannel payments, we can help!

What’s the “Right” Gateway?

Every situation is different. There is no one size fits all solution when it comes to accepting payments. Whether your customers are selling locally, internationally, offering a service, shipping a product, there are many factors that go into creating and operating a gateway. As a processor, you need to take into account payment types, bank processes, regulations, technology possibilities and limitations, and so much more.

But you don't have to do it alone! Softjourn is happy to assist with each situation, be it solving a need for payment processors, banks, transaction acquirers, or prepaid card issuers. We pride ourselves on finding the right answer for each customer’s questions. Each is an individual challenge that we are excited to resolve.

We can help you connect your website to an existing payment gateway, help create a new gateway for your specific needs, and we have an option to create an integration layer that can connect you to multiple payment gateways as a way of keeping overhead costs down.

Softjourn’s Services

General Integration

It's standard today that ecommerce and mcommerce merchants have some type of payment processor or gateway. It's pretty much impossible to accept online payments via bank cards without one.

We can help you connect to the most popular and widely accepted gateways, or help develop an API for a niche gateway that serves your particular clientele.

We have worked with many payment gateways throughout our more than decade-long experience with cards and payments; here’s a small sampling:

As for getting up to speed on a new gateway, we can learn pretty quickly. Since we understand the basic foundation regarding the endpoints for a gateway, how they work, and how to create them, all we need is documentation on the new gateway. The more documentation, the faster we learn.

Using a third-party technology provider to integrate with payment gateways has many benefits. You save time, money, and labor because we are a team of experts who can hit the ground running. This means you’re up and accepting payments quickly.

Because we are familiar with payment gateways, online payments, and ecommerce as a whole, we can make suggestions regarding augmenting the customer payment experience, security needs, abiding by regulations, including automation, and many other nuances that go with handling online payments. This means less work on your part because you're partnered with an expert who can answer all your questions.

For example, one recurring question we receive is how long it takes to integrate to a gateway. The answer is, there is no average. Every situation is different. We will take you through a step-by-step process to identify the best gateway that meets your individual needs.

Customized Gateways

If you need to accept specific payment types or enable new functionality, we can customize existing payment gateways or create a whole new one from the ground up.

Customization makes sense if you need to accept recurring payments, support mobile wallets, handle bidirectional payments, support cryptocurrencies, track disputes and arbitrations, perform tax calculations, and many other use cases.

Building a completely custom gateway requires a number of steps: PCI compliance, integration with an acquiring bank, a tokenization solution, and, finally, integration with the storefront website. We can help you navigate all of this and create a payment solution that meets all of your needs; we can also advise based on your budget, so that your needs are met within your limits.

And as your business grows, we can add new features as they become needed.

Integration Layer

As your business grows, you may end up needing or acquiring additional payment gateways. Doing so at any pace increases the costs your business incurs, and introduces new difficulties: multiple code bases, navigating and managing different support and development teams, and troubleshooting client issues, to name just a few.

We have a simple solution to this issue; a way that businesses can gain economies of scale. With an integration layer, gateways can be connected to one central tool that provides an easy method of maintenance, upgrades, or updates, depending on the need.

This can simplify support and development needs, reducing cost and time related to software maintenance.

It’s All About Choice and Service

We know you want to give your clients great choices and great service. But, with the ongoing innovation in payments, keeping up with everything your clients and potential clients want and ask for is a growing challenge.

Let us support you to offload the tech challenges that divert your attention and eat up your time. Developing creative custom solutions for payment gateways and lots of additional aspects of payments is what we do at Softjourn, and we’re very good at it.

Together, we’ll give your clients the choice and service they need to advance their businesses (and yours, too).

Opportunity to connect new applications and systems to the layer over time

Simplify development and deployment of new applications

Lessen need for additional support teams because access is simplified

FAQ

Q: How long does it take to integrate to a payment gateway or payment processor?

A: Every integration is different. There is no answer that says it will always take 40 hours or 80 hours or 160 hours. Factors affecting the time needed for integration can include but are not limited to:

Number of payment types that need to be support,

Types of payment transactions that need to be support,

Split payments,

Complexity of refund workflow,

Complexity of the application that will be gateway/processor will be integrated to; each integration unique, is there an abstraction layer?,

Extent of api documentation available for the gateway or processor,

Test platform availability/sandbox.

Q: There are hundreds of gateways and processors out there; you can’t possibly have worked with them all. How long does it take for Softjourn to be able to integrate to an unfamiliar gateway?

A: You are right that there are hundreds of gateways out there; we have assisted in creating some of them. No one company could possibly have integrated and intimately know each and every one of those gateways. What Softjourn brings to the table is knowledge of how the different levels of gateways and processors work, what endpoints are needed in order to accept a payment or process a refund, how to build those endpoints if necessary, payment and refund workflows, and much more. Getting up to speed on a new gateway depends on the level of documentation available for the gateway/processor.